Described herein are vending machine systems and, more specifically, vending machine systems that use standard inventory control system components.
Vending machines (or “automatic retailing” machines), in the broadest sense, have been around for thousands of years. The first simple mechanical coin operated vending machines were introduced in the 1880s. Modern vending machines stock many different types of products including, but not limited to drinks (e.g. water, juice, coffee, and soda) and edible food products (e.g. snacks, candy, fruit, and frozen meals). Typically, a user will look at the front face of the vending machine to determine which product he would like. From the front face the user may be able to see names of the products, logos indicating the products, pictures of the products, and/or products themselves (e.g. if the front face is typically glass so the contents of the vending machine can be seen). Once the user has determined which product he would like, he inserts payment (e.g. coins, bills, or payment cards). He then inputs his selection into the vending machine using a user interface such as a series of buttons, a key pad, touchscreen, or other input mechanism using, for example, the column ID at which the desired product is located. The column ID may be a number indicating a row and a letter indicating the left to right position within the row. So the top left column ID might be A1. Based on the user's inputted column ID, technology within the vending machine provides the desired product to the user. The term “vending machine” is meant to be inclusive and to include all types of vending machines, not only those shown and discussed herein.
In this fast paced world, vending machines are ubiquitous. For example, an office building or hotel (referred to generally as a “field site”) having twenty floors might have one or more rooms for vending machines (either a dedicated room or a kitchen or lunchroom) on every floor. And in each room there is, on average, three to five vending machines. The location of each vending machine is referred to as a “machine site.” Each vending machine route merchandiser (or “merchandiser”) might service a hundred such field sites on a route, each field site having anywhere from one machine site to hundreds of machine sites. Merchandisers obtain inventory or products to stock the vending machines from a warehouse or distribution center that stocks many different types of products. A “vending service company” might service many routes from many warehouses or distribution centers. The location from which the vending service company manages its vending machine network is referred to as a “management site” that may be located at a warehouse or distribution center or it may be located in a separate or remote location.
To manage such a vending machine network, modern vending service companies have taken advantage of technological progress in the vending machines themselves. Inventory control systems have become common. These inventory control systems include components such as vending machines having processing units, vending machine audit technology, and management technology. These inventory control systems also use management programs and communication programs. Many companies (including COKE®, PEPSI®, CRANE®, MEI®, and others) have participated in the NAMA VDI standards to allow audit technologies to share vending sales and usage data with management systems according to the industry standard VDI protocols.
Many vending machines have processing units built into (or retrofitted into) them. These processing units can be accessed both to provide vending machine related data and to obtain vending machine related data. Typical “vending machine related data” (also referred to as “vending machine data”) includes, for example, information about the funds (bills, coins, and cashless) received by the machine and the products stocked in and/or sold by the machine (e.g. the products and prices in the vending machine). Common or standard (industry standard) “vending machine protocols” used for communicating with vending machines in order to exchange the vending machine data include, for example, DEX/UCS, MDB, and DDCMP. These industry standard vending machine protocols have definitions that are readily available and not replicated herein.
To communicate with the vending machines' processing units, merchandisers use “vending machine audit technology” that is usually portable and/or handheld to obtain the vending machine data. Further, the audit technology is synchronized with “management technology” that is located at the management site so that the vending machine data from the vending machine can be used for management purposes at the management site. Exemplary audit technology is described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0303982 to Blachman et al. (the “Blachman reference”), U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0074777 to Anderson (the “Anderson reference”), and other references disclosed herein, all of which are hereby specifically incorporated by reference.
“Management programs” use the vending machine data in a variety of ways including, but not limited to cash management, inventory management (tracking or predicting), and/or remote management. “Communication programs” allow communications between the vending machines, the audit technology, and/or management technology at the management site. The communication programs use the vending machine protocols to assist in the exchange of the vending machine data.
In recent years, many improvements to modern vending machines have been suggested. Many of the innovations relate to means for communicating with the vending machine. Some of these communication innovations are detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,085,556 to Offer (the “Offer reference”), U.S. Pat. No. 6,462,644 to Howell et al. (the “Howell reference”), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,808 to Konsmo et al. (the “Konsmo reference”). These references are herein incorporated by reference.
The Offer reference is directed to a vending machine that is designed to communicate with a cellular phone. A user of the vending machine disclosed in the Offer reference would use his cellular phone to provide a signal that, when received by the vending machine, would cause the dispensing of a product.
The Howell reference is directed to networking technologies (including wireless technologies) that allow multiple vending machines to be networked together so that information from the vending machines can be used in the building of a database that can be made available to bottlers interested in individual vending machine routing needs and profitability.
The Konsmo reference is directed to two-way communications with networked remote vending machines. The Konsmo reference describes vending machines having sensors that detect the occurrence of specified events such as sales of goods, unauthorized entry into the vending machine, and notification of low inventory stock.
Users of traditional vending machines are unable to see product nutritional (including ingredient) information prior to purchase. The product is enclosed in the vending machine so users do not have access to the nutritional information from the product package. Even if the vending machine displays the product itself (e.g. through a glass face, glass window, or glass door), the users cannot touch the package nor see the backside of the package that usually provides the “nutrition facts label” (the nutritional information) as mandated by law.
Posting comprehensive nutritional information adjacent to the machine for products is impractical. While a typical vending machine merchandises about forty different products, there can be at any given time hundreds or thousands of potential products that a merchandiser could stock in the vending machine. Moreover, the list of available products is fluid and constantly changing so a static list would become out-of-date in short order. Moreover, from a user's perspective, finding the nutritional information in a list adjacent to the machine would be time consuming and inconvenient if hundreds or thousands of products were listed.
References such as U.S. Pat. No. 7,299,576 to Martin et al. (the “Martin reference”), U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0278065 to Garza (the “Garza reference”), and U.S. Pat. No. 7,490,054 to Reade et al. (the “Reade reference”) disclose new types of displays for vending machines. These references are herein incorporated by reference.
The Martin reference is directed to a vending machine display and apparatus. The Martin reference teaches a display that is associated with user-manipulated control and/or with a product in the vending machine dispensed by operation of the user-manipulatable control. In some embodiments, the display is responsive to the controller by changing graphics and/or text displayed by the display.
The Garza reference is directed to remote posting of nutritional information. More specifically, the Garza reference relates to a vending machine equipped with a remote nutrition informing system in which nutritional information is displayed separate from the food or beverage product or its packaging; thereby making information available to consumers that otherwise would not have been available prior to purchase. The Garza reference also discloses that the nutrition informational display provides at least one category identifier representative of a dietary category of food along with a corresponding brief description and at least one food product that has a label associated to it, the label displaying all category identifiers that are represented in the at least one food product.
The Reade reference is directed to an RFID system and method for vending machine control. The Reade method and system seeks to aid consumers in making informed decisions prior to purchasing products from a vending. The Reade reference further discloses that product information may be visually displayed on a visual display screen.
Improvements have also been made to vending machine displays and user interfaces. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,784,643 to Levine (the “Levine reference”) discloses a vending machine messaging system using a vending machine having a window, a display unit attached to an interior surface of the window, and a server in communication with the display unit via a communications network. The server communicates various messages to be displayed by the display unit such as advertisements, stock quotes, news, weather, nutritional content of the merchandise and the like. In addition, a coupon code, redemption offer or other type of code may be displayed in conjunction with a particular message along with a website address for a consumer to login into. When the consumer logs into the website to redeem their code, they provide the code to the website that then provides a coupon for the consumer to print out that may be used for a discount, a free product, or other benefit for the consumer.
Improvements have also been made to allow vending machines to provide some types of discounts. U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,193 to Walker et al. (the “Walker '193 reference”), for example, discloses a method and apparatus for automatically delivering a combination of products from a vending machine at a package price. U.S. Pat. No. 7,885,726 to Walker et al. (the “Walker '726 reference”) discloses systems and methods for delivering products-on-demand to individuals and, more particularly, to delivery via vending machines in which a customer who makes an initial product selection may be presented with an alternate product offer including a discount. U.S. Pat. No. 7,711,658 to Tedesco et al. (the “Tedesco reference”) discloses a method and apparatus for automatically managing a price of a product in a vending machine by implementing dynamic price adjustments at various times including after stocking, after a sale of a product, and at periodic intervals.
Still additional improvements have been made to allow vending machines to communicate with cellular phone technology. U.S. Pat. No. 6,844,813 to Hardman (the “Hardman reference”), for example, discloses a vending machine is equipped with a short range communication circuit for uploading vending machine data to passing mobile terminals. In exchange for this facilitation and the use of the mobile terminals, the users may receive a credit/value that may be implemented as a coupon for goods sold in the vending machine or an electronic discount on purchases made from the vending machine.